Story+1985-09-29+Los+Angeles,+CA

´´This is about, uh....this is about falling through the, uh, what´s it called? oh, the safety net, yeah, here we go....´´
 * 29.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´´Johnny 99´´**

´´We were down in Houston, Texas....on the first part of our American tour....you´d see a lot of folks....that´d come down there from the Northeast, out of Pittsburgh, Monongahela Valley, Gary, Indiana....out of Detroit, Youngstown....they´d all moved south....looking for work in the oil fields, in the oil rigs....and they´d get down there with their wives and kids.... and when the price of oil dropped....they´d just be laying ´em off....they´d get down there, there´d be no work, they had no place to go....you´d see ´em sleeping in tents out on the side of the highway at night....or sleeping in their cars....with nothing to do but move on....this is called....´Seeds´....´´
 * 29.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´´Seeds´´**

´´How you doing out there tonight? (cheers) good....when I was growing up....my dad used to always sit in the kitchen....and wait for me to come home at night....and he´d lock up the frontdoor so that....so that I´d have to come in around the side and he´d always know what time I was getting home....and when I was growing up, we were always going at it all the time....I used to have really long hair, like down to my shoulders....I was 18, 17, 18....and he used to bust me about it all the time....and we got to fighting so much sometimes that I´d spend a lot of time out of the house.....and in the summertime it wasn´t so bad.....but when it would get to be winter, I can always remember....standing down on the corner, it´d be getting cold, I´d be thinking about going home....I used to have this phonebooth I used to stand in.... I used to call my girl for hours at a time (chuckles) then finally I´d get my nerve up....I´d stand in the driveway of my house.....I´d come up on the porch and I´d walk inside....and my mom would be sleeping in the livingroom....and he´d call me to come and sit down with him ....and he´d always ask me what I thought I was doing with myself....and he´d always be saying ´Man, I can´t wait till the army gets you....man, they´re gonna make a man outta you ....I can´t wait till they cut that hair off´....and that was in, I guess it was ´67, ´68.....the Vietnam War was going on and there was a lot of guys that were leaving....I remember a friend of mine joined the Marines, I remember I asked him where Vietnam was and he told me that he didn´t know (chuckles)....and there were a lot of guys that left and didn´t come back.....and there were guys that came back and that weren´t ever the same again.....and I remember when I got my draft notice in the mail....and I went down....I stayed up for three days, me and some friends of mine, and we were scared.....I remember going down on the bus....and I came home and I failed (chuckles) and (cheers) nothing to, it´s nothing to applaud about, but I remember going into the kitchen and my Pop saying ´Man, where´ve you been for three days?´ my mother was there.....and I told ´em that I took my physical and he said ´What happened?´....and I said ´I failed´ and he said ´That´s good´....but there was so much that I didn´t understand about him....what it was like trying to raise a family, looking for jobs all the time, not being able to find ´em, not finding one thing that you could feel proud of yourself of....and when I was 17, he wasn´t much older than I am right now....but we just came down out of, out of Pittsburgh where they´re closing the steel mills down, like they did here in East Los Angeles....work is so, is such a big part of people´s lives....that it seems like....if you get left on the outside....if you feel like things are sailing away from you and you´re left standing on the dock....I think that´s how my dad felt a lot of times....I think you end up living....living in the shadow of a dream....and that´s what.....that´s what this song is about.....´´
 * 29.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´´The River´´**

´´This is a song, uh....in the 60´s you grew up with.....with war on TV every night....I guess if you look now, you see the same thing....that´s something where, this is a song for all the young people out there tonight.....if you´re in your teens....there´s, uh, I guess next time.... they´re gonna be looking at you and it´s gonna be your turn....and you´ll need a lot more information and blind faith in 1985 in your leaders will just get you killed....and, uh, it don´t matter whether you´re a young Nicaraguan or whether you´re a young Russian or you live in Iraq or if you´re a young Iranian, if you´re an Afghanistan or if you´re born in the U.S.A.... ´cause what I´m talking about is....War!....´´
 * 29.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´´War´´**

´´Thanks....oh.....yeah.....thank you....is there, uh....anybody out there, like, with a new boyfriend or a new girlfriend tonight? (some cheer) yeah, anybody out there married? (bigger cheer) yeah....this next song is gonna be for both of you guys, uh (chuckles) this is, uh, you know how it is when you first meet somebody, you know how, like, for about three or four months you act like, you know, the nicest person you´ve ever been in your whole life?....but that´s not really you, you know (chuckles) you have, like, on, it´s like, your love-face, you know, everytime you see ´em ´Oh, honey, how you doing?´ and everything is great and whatever they wanna do is fine and, you know, making love all the time, two or three times a day....´Oh, honey, I´m sorry, I just can´t help myself´....you know, you go over to visit like their parents or something and you´re fooling around under the table and (laughs)....oh yeah, you know, if your, you never wanna go out or anything, like all your friends call you and they go ´Hey, what are you doing Friday?´ ´Well, like, you know, I´m kind of busy Friday´ ´Well, what about Saturday?´ ´Well, you know, like, I´m kind of busy on Saturday, you see, I got something to do´....you know, you never see them any more.....you know, like, if you wanna go to the movies, it´s like ´Oh, honey, what movie do you wanna see?´....´Oh, sugar, I don´t care, anything you wanna see´....´We can stay right here at home tonight just as long as I´m with you´....oh yeah, how sweet it is, right? (chuckles) but then you come back about a year later....now, I´m not speaking from personal experience here....but you come back about a year later and it´s like ´Are we going out tonight or do I have to sit around here and look at your face all night long?´....and then if you´re going out, it´s like ´You gonna wear that? Don´t, don´t wear that! Are you gonna go out with that on? no´....but, anyway, in the end, why is that? I don´t know, I don´t know....anyway, this is for anybody out there who´s in love tonight!....´´
 * 29.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´´I´m Goin´ Down´´**

´´(after the singalong) Excellent out there!....that´s good singing, oh....I did a song for the young people, now I´m gonna do a song for the old people out there....I mean, man, I just had my birthday, I´m 36 now....yeah! 36....but I feel young tonight....I feel handsome....I feel at the peak of my sexual powers....yes, I do! (chuckles) oh, this is ´cause in the end....this is for anybody my age or over....Big Man....´cause in the end it ain´t nothing but glory days.... are you ready, band?....are you ready, people? (cheers)....´´
 * 29.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´´Glory Days´´**

´´Yeah....good (chuckles)...this is, uh....no matter how old you get....you gotta keep searching for that Promised Land....´´
 * 29.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´´The Promised Land´´**

´´Thanks....I was telling the folks last night that, uh....every place you go and we´ve been.... we´ve been all over in the past year or so....but every place you go, whenever you mention the name of that place, people always go, go nuts....it´s kind of some, some sociological mystery or something (chuckles) watch....Los Angeles (cheers) what´d I tell you? California (cheers) now that happens every place you go....and uh, I got to thinking about it and I guess I realised that the reason people cheer when they hear the name of their town is because they must be proud of where they come from....that´s good, you know.....I guess if you´re proud of where you come from, it would make sense that you wanna do something to make it a better place to live....and, uh, that takes a little effort (chuckles) a little work....tonight in the audience, we have representatives from....the Community Food Resource Center of Los Angeles and what that is is that’s a foodbank and it´s a foodbank that works in conjunction with other foodbanks from Long Beach, Orange County, Riverside, San Diego....and what a foodbank does is every year 20 percent of all the food in the United States gets wasted or thrown away, meanwhile in every city and in every town, there’s old folks whose social security checks don’t get ‘em through the month, who gotta decide between buying medicine and food for themselves, there’s folks that´d been hit hard by unemployment that need a hand, there’s, uh, single mothers alone trying to raise their kids on their own....there’s, uh, young kids that ain´t getting the right nutritious kind of food, so they can grow up healthy.... and, uh, with, I guess, 33 million people living at or below the poverty line in one of the richest countries in the world and with the government cutting back on social spending, it would make sense that these folks need all the help that their neighbors can give ´em.....and uh....I guess what I’m trying to say is that it´s the folks from these foodbanks, also out there tonight there´s folks from the Steelworkers´ Old-Timers´ Foodbank, yeah, who we worked with the last time we were here in Los Angeles, they´ve been doing a lot of interesting things since we´ve been gone....but mainly these are the people that are out there every day taking some of these ideas that I’m singing about up here tonight out into the real world and trying to make them real in people´s lives and without them, what I’m doing up here tonight in the end don´t amount to much more than words so, uh....I think, I know that they can use your help in inching us all a little bit closer to that Promised Land.....so, uh, when you go out into the lobby tonight, you´re gonna see some phonenumbers, oh, and let me mention that if you go out into the lobby, there´ll be, no one out there is, is, is collecting no donations from the foodbank, so if somebody comes up to you and asks for a donation, one of your friendly neighbors, please keep your money in your pocket, ok ? (chuckles) there´s no donating out in the lobby but the phonenumbers are out there, you can get them up, write down the foodbank near you, check ´em out when you go home, find out what they’re about and help make your hometown a better and a fairer and a more decent place to live for all of its citizens....ok?.... ok....´´
 * 29.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´´My Hometown´´**

´´I always remember....my folks working so hard when I was a kid.....my bedroom was out over the backyard and....I always remember my dad in the morning, I could always hear.... the sound of the hood coming up....on one of the old cars he bought....him laying on the ground, trying to get it started....so he´d get to work....and my mom going down to the finance company....borrowing money for Christmas and getting it paid back in time to borrow money for Easter...getting it paid back....in time to borrow money for our school clothes....and she never let on like it bothered her....but I can always remember it bothered my dad....and he´d sit there at night like something was dying inside of him.....until I could feel something dying inside of him....and I didn´t, I didn´t know what it was, I´d lay up in bed at night ....thinking that if something didn´t happen....that I was just gonna.....that I´d just..... that if something didn´t happen....that someday I was just gonna....feeling like I just....like I was just gonna....just.....´´
 * 29.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´´I´m on Fire´´**

´´Temptation!....do you know what I´m talking about? (cheers) good because this is a song about temptation....it´s about conflict....between worldly things and spiritual health.... between desires of the flesh, and I´m talking about sexual desire....and spiritual ecstasy.... now, where did this conflict begin?....well, it began in the beginning in a place called the Garden of Eden, have you heard about it ? (cheers) alright, I´d like to bring out one of the world´s foremost biblical scholars to help me in my explanation....now, you see in the beginning - thank you, Jim - the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in Mesopotamia....somewhere about there....but the latest theological studies have found out that its actual location was, Jim.....that´s right, ten miles south of Jersey City, off the New Jersey Turnpike....and that, ladies and gentlemen, is why they call it the Garden State....but now understand, in the Garden of Eden, there were none of the accoutrements of modern living....you didn´t have, uh, uh, coin-operated Laundromats, no, you didn´t have, uh, you couldn´t go home at night and, and go into the icebox and fix yourself a nice, big ham-and-cheese sandwich and then jump in the sack with your baby and watch David Letterman....no, Sir!....you couldn´t go on down on to, uh, down to, uh, the LaCieda there and buy a fatburger if you wanted one.....no, Sir!....in the Garden of Eden there was no sin....there was no sex..... Man lived in a state of innocence.....now, when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of guilt that I constantly live in....but, uh, in the Garden of Eden, oh, there were many wonderous things: there was a Tree, a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, got everybody in trouble.... there was a man, Adam, there was a woman, Eve and she looked so fine and when Adam kissed her, it was the first time that a man had ever kissed a woman.....and she had legs that were long and soft to the touch.....and when Adam touched her, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman....and then she touched him....and it was the first time that a woman had ever touched a man....oh, and then he snuggled up real close to her and he said ´Oh, I love you, Evie´ and, man, they went walking out into the green fields....and then they lay down....and he whispered some pretty little sweet things in her ear....and when Adam.... well, let´s just say it was the first time for that too....but there was something else in the Garden of Eden on that day, old Satan came slithering up on his belly and somehow he turned their sweet love into a betrayal and sent them driving down into the darkness below.... but that´s alright because right here tonight on this backlot for ninenty-nine ninenty-five and no money down, don´t worry if you´ve got bad credit, it´s good here, we will finance, we will take a chance on you, if you´ve got the nerve to ride....I´ve got the keys....to the first....pink ....Cadillac....´´
 * 29.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´´Pink Cadillac´´**

´´Thank you....thanks....oh, I´d like to....I´d like to take a second and, and thank everybody for coming down to the show tonight....and I´d also like to....like to thank youse for your support over the past year that we´ve come into town and before that, you know....and uh.... it´s always been....a pleasure coming to Los Angeles for us....yeah!....I´d like to remind youse....of the foodbank numbers, when you get home, you can check ´em out, because they´re out there making the world less of a lonely place for a lot of people....and I´d also like to remind you that on your way out to the parking lot that, once again, nobody is collecting for the foodbank tonight so if somebody asks for donations....uh, save it till you get home....but it was back in ´75 on the Born to Run-tour (cheers) a little bit of history (chuckles) if you wanna call it that (chuckles) we, uh.....I wanna do my favorite Elvis song for you.....we were.....we were down in Memphis and I remember it was late at night and I was sitting in a motelroom with me and my guitar player Steve and uh....we got a taxi to take us out to Elvis´ house and he took us out there in the middle of the night and I remember we got out of the cab and we stood there in front of those gates with the big guitar players on ´em and when you looked up the driveway, in the second story of the house you could see a light on and I figured that Elvis has gotta be up, up reading or something and I told Steve, I said ´Steve, man, I gotta go check it out´....and I jumped up over the wall and I started running up the driveway, which when I look back on it now was kind of a stupid thing to do because I hate it when people do it at my house (chuckles) but uh....anyway (chuckles) at the time I was filled with the enthusiasm of youth and ran up the driveway and I got to the frontdoor and I was just about to knock and guards came out of the woods and they asked me what I wanted and I said ´Is Elvis home?´....and they said, uh, ´No, no, Elvis isn´t home now, he´s, he´s in Lake Tahoe´ so I started to tell ´em that I was a guitar player and that I had my own band and that we played in town that night and I´d made some records and, uh, I even told ´em, uh, told ´em I had my picture on the cover of Time and Newsweek (chuckles) I had to, I had to pull out all the stops and try to make an impression so (chuckles) so, uh, I don´t think he believed me though ´cause he just kind of stood there, nodding ´Uh-huh, uh-huh´ and then he took me by the arm and put me back out on the street with Steve but, uh, later on I used to wonder what I would´ve said if, you know, if I´d knocked on the door and if Elvis had come to the door because it really wasn´t Elvis I was going to see but it was, like, he came along and whispered some dream in everybody´s ear and somehow we all dreamed it and maybe that´s why we´re here tonight, I don´t know (chuckles) but, but....but I remember later when a friend of mine called me and told me that he´d died, it was so hard to understand how somebody whose music came in and took away so many people´s loneliness and gave so many people a reason and a sense of the possibilities of living could´ve in the end died so tragically....and I guess, uh, when you´re alone, you ain´t nothing but alone....so, uh, anyway, I, I´d like to do this song for youse tonight wishing you all the longest life with the best of absolutely everything....´´
 * 29.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´´Can´t Help Falling in Love with You´´**

´´Thanks....oh....on the piano, Professor Roy Bittan....on the vocals, Miss Patti Scialfa....on the drums, Mighty Max Weinberg....on the organ, Phantom Dan Federici....on the bass, Garry W.Tallent....on the guitar, Nils Lofgren....and in this corner, six foot five, 225 pounds, the handsomest man in the history of Western civilization, Clarence ´Big Man´ Clemons on the saxophone....are we some roadrunners, Big Man?....we´re roadrunners, baby, that´s my business....´´
 * 29.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´´Ramrod´´**

´´Are you ready to testify? (cheers) then raise your hands....because now we begin....come on, band..... (....) Starting to feel good now....how you doing, Big Man? (Clarence: ´Oh, the Big Man is grooving´) oh yeah?....how´s the band doing?....you guys ain´t tired yet or nothing, are you? ....(?)....well, now, what I wanna know is....how´s everybody in the stands over here? (cheers) you doing alright? (cheers) now how´s everybody in the stands over there? (cheers) good....now what about you guys way in the back there on the hill, are you alright back there? (cheers) oh yeah, and now, now, now....how´s everybody down here on the dancefloor? (cheers) are you sure? (cheers) good ´cause that makes me a happy man....that´s all I wanna know....yes....but....but before I go, there is....one more thing I wanna know.... before I leave tonight, there´s one question that I need an answer to....I mean before I go, there´s just one thing here that I gotta know....I mean there´s just one....one....one question that I need an answer to....and see, what I wanna know is....I mean what I need to know is....I´m gonna tell you flat out what I wanna know is....I mean what I really need to know is ....I mean what I came all the way to L.A to find out is....I mean what I need to know tonight is....I mean what I´ve got to know tonight is....I mean the last thing that I need to know tonight is ....what I gotta know tonight is.....Do you love me?..... (....) I think....I think....I´m just about getting my second wind right here....Well, shake it a baby.... (...) I´m just a prisoner....of rock and roll....and there ain´t nothing I can do about it.....´´
 * 29.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´´Twist and Shout´´**

´´I´m 36 now, I can´t do this all night long here....there´s all ´em reruns on the late show, man, we gotta (?)....yeah, yeah, yeah (chuckles)....oh, so you think you´re tough, huh? (cheers) so you think you´re rough? (cheers) so you think you can outlast us, huh? (cheers) oh yeah? (cheers) oh yeah? (cheers) oh yeah? (cheers) Well, Jimmy Lee....´´
 * 29.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´´Stand on It´´**

´´Wait a minute, we ain´t done yet....are you ready to travel? (cheers) (....) Alright now....oh, we´re traveling now....feels good.....oh yeah, we´ve been traveling all across the U.S.A.....New York....New Jersey....Washington, Baltimore....Memphis.... Birmingham, Alabama....Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Dallas, Houston....Austin....San Francisco.....oh, coming down California till we get to.....Los Angeles....are you ready to go? (cheers) are you ready to go? (cheers) are you ready to join a rock and roll band? (cheers) are you ready to go? (cheers) are you ready to go? (cheers)....´´
 * 29.09.85 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ´´Traveling Band´´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//